Ricardo Mayorga (45-5) from Managua Nicaragua seems to have a new theme to his fights: Talk trash, get knocked out, shut up, go home. I don't mean to be so brash, but when you talk as much as Mayorga, you'd better be certain you're going to win.

Shane Mosley (45-5) from Pomona CA, much like Bernard Hopkins, showed us ring generalship and expirience do not deteriorate like skills, they exponentially get better and better.

The fight which unraveled followed a path that was anything but predetermined: instead of taking a De La Hoya type approach to Mayorga, Mosley seemed to have taken the Vernon Forrest approach. In other words, Mosley fought Mayorga's fight. The brash street fighter from Nicaragua did better then any boxing expert could suppose, but this wasn't enough to beat a living legend.

Heres how the fight went down:

Round One) Mayorga fights like your average frat boy trying to be tough—wild haymakers and little skill or patience. Mosley plays into this and an all out brawl ensues. 10-9 Mayorga.

Round Two) Mayorga gets a tiny bit better, instead of looking like a crazy frat boy he now looks like a first-fight amateur. Mosley is primarily on the defensive, however while he waits for counter shots to arise, Mayorga lands a few blows. 20-18 Mayorga.

Round Four) Mosley begins to find his stride and starts to dictate the tempo of the fight. He finds significant success with the lead right, but Mayorga fights surprisingly well. 39-37 Mayorga.

Round Five) Mosley becomes more and more comfortable with the situation and is successful with the jab left hook. As an indirect correlation between the two, Mayorga becomes increasingly uncomfortable and cannot find Mosley as easily as he did in the early rounds. 48-47 Mayorga.

Round Six) WOW! Mosley lands the lead right at will throughout the round. With 1:30 remaining in the round, Mayorga becomes target practice for Mosley’s precision punching. Mayorga is sent to the canvas after a barrage of punches near the end of the round. 56-57 Mosley.

Round Seven) The fight goes back to round five in logistics, Mosley uses superior boxing technique to out-point the relentless Mayorga. 65-67 Mosley.

Round Eight) Mayorga begins to turn the boxing match into a wrestling match which momentarily nullifies Mosley’s ability to create offensive opportunities. Mayorga employs the correct strategy, but not enough to win the round. 74-77 Mosley.

Round 11) Mosley creates space with the jab and is able to land punches seemingly at will, but Mayorga’s chin is truly world-class. Mayorga celebrates after the bell to a round he lost. 102-106 Mosley.

Round 12) The round saw Mosley dominate throughout as Mayorga began to tire. With roughly 14 seconds remaining Mosley unleashes a three punch right cross/left hook/right hook combination that floors Mayorga. Mayorga stands up with only three seconds remaining. Mosley runs over and delivers one of the sweetest left hooks I have ever seen in boxing or my personal boxing career. Since a fighter cannot be saved by the bell, and Mayorga was not able to get up, the fight is ruled a knockout with :01 remaining.

Closing Thoughts

Shane Mosley gave Mayorga a true “boxing lesson” in every sense of the phrase. Not including the early rounds, Mosley was able to counterpunch at will and was never in any serious danger from Mayorga’s street fighting tactics.

On the downside, however, I think it is clear that “Sugar” Shane Mosley is now “Aged” Shane Mosley. He showed brilliant ring generalship and boxing know-how, but his skills have been severely diminished since the Cotto fight (which was not even a year ago). I love to see Mosley fight, but he simply is not the fighter he once was.

The most prevalent example of this was Mosley’s failure to follow up his knockdown of Mayorga in the sixth round. He admittedly faced that fact in his post fight interview, “I’m not getting any younger...I need to get my fights in now” etc. etc. As an example, imagine the Shane Mosley who beat De La Hoya in their first fight vs. Ricardo Mayorga; does it play out a little differently in your head? It should.

Mayorga showed fans and experts, if anything, that he deserved to be fighting someone of Mosley’s caliber (I, for one, thought he had no business fighting this fight). As with all his other fights, Mayorga showed the heart of a lion, but the skills of a mediocre amateur. Heart can only get you so far in boxing.